Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives scored political points from the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cut, according to CTV’s Question Period’s regular panel of political strategists.
On Wednesday, the central bank cut its key interest rate for the first time since before the pandemic, to 4.75 per cent from five, where it’d been stuck for nearly a year.
Reacting to the news, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland this week celebrated the news, praising her government’s fiscal policy for helping “create the economic conditions” for the central bank to lower its rate.
“Canada is the first G7 country where interest rates have been lowered. Our economic plan is working,” Freeland told reporters on Wednesday.
But according to the Sunday Strategy Session panel, taking credit for the cut is the wrong move.
Scott Reid, CTV News political analyst and former communications director to then-prime minister Paul Martin, said the Liberals’ messaging on the rate cut is the exact opposite of good communications.
“Is it was really frustrating, because it’s so tone deaf,” he said. “Look, there are three things they’ve got to do in this situation. One, do not take credit, give credit. That means give credit to Canadians.”
“Say, listen, it’s because Canadians have been working hard, sticking with the plan, and we’re starting to see signs of hope,” he explained, adding the federal government should also “focus on the future” and communicate how its plan will ensure the rate cut benefit Canadians.
Thirdly, Reid said, the Liberals should contrast their plan with the Conservatives’, which they should describe in “the most heinous, villainous and satanic terms possible.
Kory Teneycke, who was Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s campaign manager and former director of communications for then-prime minister Stephen Harper, agreed with Reid, adding it’s possible the Liberals are falling into a trap many late-in-life governments do, which is “they’re looking for a thank-you card from the public for the work that they’re doing.”
“That’s just not the way that works,” he said. “Politics is not a job where you’re going to get a lot of thank-you cards.”
“However,” he added, “if you can’t lay out a plan that is forward-looking, and do the things that Scott just talked about, you can get a pink slip, not a thank-you card. And I think that’s what’s coming their way imminently.”
In contrast, the Conservatives largely dismissed the rate cut as a win this week, arguing that life is still unaffordable for most Canadians.
Kathleen Monk, a former NDP strategist and director of communications to the late Jack Layton, said that tact was also a mistake.
And despite interest rates now going in a downward direction, she said, it’s unlikely they’ll get seriously low anytime soon, which means there still won’t be much of a reprieve for Canadians.
“I think what’s important going forward, really, for all parties, but particularly for the Liberals, is to hope for some kind of psychological impact,” Monk said. “The economy is not just numbers and data points, right? It is how people feel about the economy.”
“If they can actually take that vacation, if they can go to the grocery store and not really look at every single price, and if people have that psychological uplift because they’re feeling better and that affordability crisis recedes in their memory, then things potentially could look better for the governing Liberals, if people aren’t voting exclusively on that issue in the next election,” she also said.
Both Reid and Teneycke echoed Monk’s criticisms of the Conservatives’ response to the rate cut, with Teneycke adding no one should “lose sight” of the fact even a little relief is good news.
“I don’t think any of the pressure on the government on this stuff is going to go away anytime soon,” Teneycke said. “But you know, if I were the Conservatives, I would be saying (this is a) small step in the right direction.”
You can watch the full Sunday Strategy Session panel in the video player at the top of this article.
